My name is Alex, and I’m a dad to two fantastic kids, who are now 11 and 9. Like pretty much every parent I know, I’m trying my best to guide them through the digital maze that is modern childhood. Now, here’s a bit of an irony for you: even though I’ve always been a tech person (yes, I’m that parent who builds their kids’ PCs!), my grand plan was always to keep their screen time to the bare minimum. I dreamt of them spending most of their time building forts and exploring the backyard, not glued to a tablet.
But then, BAM! The pandemic hit, and all those well-meaning plans went straight out the window, didn’t they? Suddenly, screens weren’t just for a bit of fun; they were school, they were how our kids saw their friends, they were the only way to feel even a little bit normal. I’ll never forget my daughter’s Minecraft birthday party. It was a surreal experience – celebrating with virtual cake and pixelated friends – but it was what we had to do. That whole period really rammed home a new truth: screens were a permanent fixture, and their role in our kids’ lives had changed for good.
Of course, with more screen time came more worries. The internet is an incredible place, full of wonders, but let’s be honest, it’s also got some pretty murky corners that you really don’t want your kids stumbling into accidentally. The stats you hear about online risks for kids – like accidentally seeing stuff they shouldn’t or being contacted by strangers – are genuinely scary. For my two, aged 9 and 11, my head was full of "what ifs": What if they click on the wrong thing? What if they see something violent or something meant for adult eyes? What about the subtle stuff, like the pressure from seeing "perfect" lives online or getting tricked by fake news?
Now, I’m a massive believer that nothing beats actually sitting down with your kids, talking openly about staying safe online, and keeping an eye on what they’re doing. But I also realised pretty quickly that we needed an extra safety net. I wanted to create a digital space for them that would automatically help shield them from those accidental missteps. Given my background, I figured I was reasonably well-equipped to tackle this.
So, I got to work creating a dedicated "kids' network" right here in our home. It’s not just about blocking the really nasty, harmful stuff (though that’s priority number one, obviously). I also decided to block most social media platforms, at least for now, and filter out the endless stream of online ads. Honestly, the way ads can mess with kids – from making them want all sorts of junk food to chipping away at their self-esteem with all those "perfect" images – is something I really wanted to limit. And social media? I just feel that at their current ages, the potential headaches and heartaches outweigh what they’d get out of it.
The relief I felt once this was up and running was huge. So much so, that I didn’t stop at our house. I’ve actually set up the exact same kid-safe network at their grandparents’ places and even at my siblings’ homes. It sounds a bit over the top, maybe, but it means that wherever the kids go to visit family, they’re automatically on a network I know is looking out for them. It's like a consistent bubble of online safety. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, mind you. Back when they were mainly on the desktop PCs I built, it felt more controllable. But then came school, and with it, iPads. And suddenly, my kids could just pick up a device and wander off with it. That mobility makes things trickier. You can’t always be looking over their shoulder. That’s where having the safety built into the network itself becomes so incredibly important, because device-specific controls can be a real pain to manage across different gadgets. Finding that sweet spot between giving them the access they need for school and keeping them safe is a constant balancing act.
We’re in a different world now than we were before the pandemic. There’s no real going back to how things were with screen time, and maybe we don’t even want to entirely. The big thing for me now, and for a lot of parents I talk to, is helping our kids learn to use technology thoughtfully and to manage their own screen time, rather than it just being the default for everything.
This whole journey – from that Minecraft birthday to figuring out network filters – has been a massive eye-opener. It’s taken a lot of time, research, and more than a few late nights. But it’s worth every second. So much so, in fact, that it’s pushed me to create All Families Secure with Fabian, to help other families find more sustainable solutions for child online safety. I truly believe we can create digital environments where our kids can learn, explore, and connect without us parents having to live in a constant state of anxiety about what they might accidentally find.
It’s about giving them a childhood that’s rich with all the good things technology can offer, but with a strong, reliable safety net underneath. And that, right there, is why this matters so much to me.
